Wicked Little Letters: Film Review
Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley are two English/Irish treasures so it is a delight to see them bouncing off each other in Wicked Little Letters.
Set in 1920s Littlehampton, the dark comedy stars Colman as Edith Swan, a conservative and highly religious woman living at home with her parents. When she receives poison pen letters in the post, she points her finger at the most obvious culprit, her foul-mouthed neighbour Rose Gooding (Buckley). The only police officer who thinks Rose didn’t do it is Gladys Moss (Anjana Vasan) and she becomes determined to prove Rose’s innocence.
Wicked Little Letters is a lovely film that I enjoyed quite a bit. Admittedly, the central mystery is rather weak and it’s not as laugh-out-loud funny as I’d expected. The best bits are in the trailer. While the vulgar and obscene insults are hilarious at first, the novelty eventually wears off as they become more repetitive and you realise the motive behind them. There’s a sad, dark story at the heart of this (which I won’t spoil) and director Thea Sharrock manages to balance the comedy and drama, for the most part.
I had a great time watching Colman and Buckley swearing at each other on screen. Buckley particularly shines in her role. We’ve seen her play the raucous, rebellious character before in Wild Rose but she does it so well. She is so much fun as the naughty Irish neighbour who is way ahead of her time; she refuses to act like a woman is expected to in the ’20s. Colman is also a delight and she made me chuckle a lot with her quirky facial expressions and line deliveries.
Vasan gets a worthy subplot of her own. Moss is the first woman on the police force and isn’t given any responsibility or treated with respect. Her fellow coppers won’t listen to her so she teams up with the local women – Lolly Adefope, Joanna Scanlan and Eileen Atkins – to crack the case. The sexism she faced made me mad and it’s impressive the likeable Moss stayed so dignified in the face of it.
Wicked Little Letters, unbelievably based on a true story, didn’t blow me away but I had plenty of fun with it.
In cinemas from Friday 23rd February